NASA’s new robotic missions:
- Lucy and Psyche are two robotic missions to explore asteroids. The Mission will open new windows to the history of our Solar System.
- The Psyche mission will explore 16 Psyche, a giant metal asteroid about three times farther away from the Sun than is the Earth.
- The Psyche mission is targeted to be launched in October of 2023.
- The Lucy Mission will explore the environment of Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids and is scheduled to launch in 2021.
Japan launches first military communications satellite:
- The Kirameki-2 satellite is the first military communication satellite launched by H-2A rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.
- It is the first of three satellites that will replace three civilian ones currently used by Japan's military.
- The new satellites will allow military units to communicate on a high-speed and high-capacity network.
Superwheat:
- Researchers in the UK have announced genetically modified "superwheat" that increases the efficiency of photosynthesis to boost yields by 20 to 40 percent. Field trials are expected in 2017.
- The researchers focused on improving the efficiency of photosynthesis, by adding genes from a grass called stiff brome.
- The new GM wheat was found to assimilate carbon dioxide better than conventional wheat.
